Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for inserting an advertisement in a broadcasting system, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for inserting an advertisement in a broadcasting system based on an adaptive streaming function.
Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the increase in use of on-line contents, smooth contents transmission has been regarded important. In line with this, there has emerged a need for adaptive streaming in which a bit rate of content is smoothly changed according to a change of an available transmission bandwidth or the performance of user's device.
At present, various standard organizations are discussing about a transmission technique in which a user terminal selects and reproduces small portions acquired by dividing content based on a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) according to circumstances to allow a user to use the content seamlessly without a delay.
In the convergence era based on an Internet Protocol (IP), the convergence service of communication and broadcasting, a next-generation new marketable business model, has attracted attention as one of next-generation market leading techniques.
In particular, an IPTV, the mainstay of the convergence service of communication and broadcasting, not only provides a service which recombines or integrates conventional TV, speech, and data techniques, but also supports interactivity, making it possible to create a variety of business models and services.
Such IPTV technology is expanded in its application range from provisioning of a service specified in conventional limited terminal environments to provisioning of a service regardless of types of terminals, e.g., stationary terminals such as a set-top box, a Personal Computer (PC), a TV, etc., and mobile terminals such as a cellular phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc., and regardless of types of networks such as a wired network, a wireless network, a broadcasting network, etc. Such expansion in the application range makes it possible to provide and apply various services in various environments and to develop various forms of services taking account of various environments.
One of representative services based on the next-generation new marketable business model may be an advertisement service. Hence, to operators supporting various contents through the convergence service of communication and broadcasting, there is an urgent need for efficiently supporting an advertisement service.